Costa Rica Blog

Costa Rica is noted for ecotourism and a great place to see exotic birds, sloths, monkeys and amazing rain forests. The government has gone to great lengths to protect the environment in Costa Rica. Ensuring that real estate development is done with regards to the environment has helped to preserve the beauty and nature that everyone wants to come and see. This piece is about the steps necessary to undertake development. I've posted it to show the depth of work that it takes to do good development and why there are so few that have stayed in business. We are proud of our 27 year history and glad there are protections in place to preserve this great country. Many developers who thought it was easy have since gone out of business when bank financing was not sufficient to keep them in business long enough to get through this bureacracy to complete the developments they'd started. The fact that we are debt free and don't rely on borrowed money is a great part of our success. The time and expense to complete all of these steps is onerous. This piece helps understand how expensive it is to do fully permitted development, meeting all the environmental and municipal standards that are in place to insure that developers are not harming the environment nor building shoddy developments that will burden the municipality down the road. See more about our developments and property tours at www.PacificLots.com

Be Sure to tell them Steve Linder sent you to take advantage of our great Discovery tour to see the properties. if you are located outside of Texas, send me an email to learn more about this opportunity, Steve@thefives.com.mx

You'll also learn about The Fives Beach Club in Playa del Carmen, a Karisma Hotel collection hotel yet owned by individuals like you and me.

This is a look at The Fives Beach Club, full ownership opportunities available!

Pay no fees, no taxes, no maintenance, no HOA, no utilities and yet have two months of usage per year. Come learn about this great program

Excellent development parcel - appraised for $2.6 mil

This 700 acre parcel sold for $2.5 million dollars less than 15 years ago to a US based development group. The development team took on the project right as the real estate downturn hit the world market. The lender recently got the property out of foreclosure from that development team and is now offering it at an amazing value. Look on ebay right now and you will see other parcels priced at a million dollars for less than 100 acres. This is 700 acres mostly cleared, usable and just minutes off the coastal highway. This should be in someone's investment portfolio just sitting on raw land or in a real estate trust. In the early 2000's this parcel sold to a development team with the intent to do a residential development on the parcel. The municipatlity gave a "Uso de Suelo" permit to grant the full development of the parcel into a high end development called Quepos Heights. Quepos by the way is the MOST VISITED TOWN in the entire country of Costa Rica.

Here is a chance to purchase this land at significatntly less than half of the current recently appraised value. I specialize in land sales in Costa Rica and have sold millions of dollars in land each year the past 10 years, I have a website with over 130 pages of information and have run multiple property tours per month in Costa Rica for the past 10 plus years. We get between 100 and 500 people per day on our website and hundreds of people on tour with us each year. I would suggest I have sold more property than anyone else in the entire country and I know this market better than anyone.

I will attest that this is one of the best values I have ever seen in Costa Rica. This parcel is located within 10 miles of Manuel Antonio national park. The parcel would make an ideal eco development offering larger parcels (5 acres for example at $50,000 for the entire 5 acres). At this pricing structure you could get over $5 million for the parcel while keeping a third for yourself and only selling 100 parcels. Or you could do smaller parcels in full residential development (en condominium) and get multi millions in returns. This land is appraised just as farmland for over 2 million dollars. There are multiple ridges with expansive ocean views and it would be easy to sub divide this parcel into 10 or more smaller parcels. There's a decent sized river right on the parcel as well as a nice waterfall and swimming hole. You could make a campground out of part of this parcel, develop part, run cattle on part and farm part and still have lots of land left over, it is 700 acres.... The entire parcel is available for sale, the lender would like to get $1,000,000 but in the interest of a quick sale, is open to offers. The lender has had their money tied up in this parcel for a long time and now they are offering it at blow out pricing. Look anywhere in Costa Rica and try to find land this cheap per acre.... Add that this parcel is in Quepos (again, in case you weren't paying attention, Quepos is the MOST visited town in the entire country) and the parcel has nice ocean views, mountain views, water and waterfalls.... AND the lender is willing to offer financing with a significant down payment, ask for details.

find us on Google under Pacific Lots of Costa Rica. if you want to join a property tour in Costa Rica to see this parcel and are interested in a retirement home, vacation property or rental property or just to hold raw land, we offer 4 day all inclusive property tours at just $299 per person. Don't be afraid to make an offer or call on this property.

THE DETAILS:

700 or 285 hectare farm located ten minutes from the Palma Tica plantation of manicured palm oil trees adjacent to the town of Paquita, ten minutes north of Quepos along the coastal highway. Quepos is the capital of Aguirre canton in Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica.

· Finca Del Presidente is 25 minutes from the town of Quepos and the beautiful hillside town of Manual Antonio. Some of the best surfing, beaches, restaurants and hotels in Costa Rica are located in these two towns just 25 minutes from the farm. Manual Antonio National Park is the # 1 tourist destination in all of Costa Rica.

· Finca Del Presidente has over two kilometers, (one and a half miles) of organic, mountain fresh rivers and streams, which originate in the mountains. This creates access to abundant pure, fresh water.

· There are two spectacular waterfalls on the farm, one over ten meters or 35 feet in height.

· Finca Del Presidente has one of the best natural swimming holes within twenty miles according to the locals. The large waterfall on the farm has created (by the force of the falls over thousands of years), a beautiful natural swimming hole which is 25 meters wide,(75 feet) by 40 meters long, (120 feet) and 5 meters, (15 feet) deep.

· There are over 4 kilometers, (two and one half miles) of existing roads on the farm allowing for immediate use and ease of access throughout the property.

· There are over 2 kilometers, (one and one quarter miles) of ridge line ocean views with roads for immediate residential or commercial development. The approved zoning plan for the farm, (Use de Suelo) allows for both residential and commercial development.

· Finca Del Presidente has over 200 acres, (80 hectares) of flat or gently sloping land previously utilized as a major fruit orchid and working cattle operation.

· Existing electrical access to the municipal electric grid is currently in place for the nearby neighbors on the public road to the ranch.

· There is abundant fresh water directly accessible on the farm from several springs, a large pond and over two kilometers of rivers and mountain springs.

· Finca del Presidente has clean title held in a Costa Rican limited liability company, (SRL).

Here's a few highly discounted properties we've been offered in Costa Rica, either bank owned, foreclosed upon or by distressed sellers who need to get out right away. It's not that often that we come across really discounted property in Costa Rica.

People often ask me why I recommend living in Costa Rica, or any foreign country for that matter. There are a lot of Americans living in Costa Rica, both working there for multinational companies as well as a large retirement contingent. Living in a foreign country, whether in Costa Rica or elsewhere offers some serious advantages that many people don't even know about.

Where to retire? As an American baby boomer my choices are nearly endless. Like most others, I want a safe place with great health care options. I want easy access, low airfare and lots of airlines servicing the country. I also want a stable government, a healthy economy and great weather. I am personally planning to spend my retirement years living outside the US, as an expatriate. What's an expatriate you ask? Someone choosing to live outside their home country. Americans are leaving the US in record numbers. The value of the US dollar has been declining as the US continues to print money at a record pace. This dilutes the value of your savings if in dollars.

People have been getting quite a surprise when driving down the coast in southern Costa Rica. There among the toucans, sloths and macaws is another rare bird in this area, a cosmic bowling alley. The Costa Ballena region has been amazing people with its bio diversity for years. But recently some new inhabitants have appeared, causing a migration of a different sort.